Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/126

 110 THE BUILDING NEWS. = Py Pee Fes. 9, 1872. ne effectual and satisfactory manner, will be the best mixture for that purpose. Many persons take the most roundabout road to at- tain a simple end, not because it is the longest road, but rather because they have no faith in the simplicity of the means to accomplish the desired end, so, in nine cases out of ten, they miss it. There are several qualities of an opposite nature required in this mixture in order to insure its working well: it must be soft enough when warm to allow it to be pressed into the most delicate parts of the mould, tough enough in drying not to crack, and, when dry, hard enough to beara smart blow without breaking. The combination of various ingredients to produce these effects are glue, linseed-oil, common resin, whiting, and water; and in proportion, as follows :— 141b. glue, 71b. resin, one quart of raw linseed- oil, and from one pint to one quart of water. The method of mixing is: first to steep the glue in water, then dissolve it; pound the resin to a fine powder, put it to the linseed oil and heat on a slow fire until the resin is dissolved ; then mix the oil and melted glue together. ‘The whiting must be whatis called the very best washed. ‘This is pounded as finely as possible and passed through a fine sieve, and should now be made thoroughly dry by slightly heating upon a stove or in an oven. Tt is then placed in a tub or other vessel, and the hot glue and oil is poured upon it (asa woman puts in her barm for baking), and well mixed up together, kneaded, rolled, and beaten with a thick piece of wood until it becomes a smooth mass of the consistency of stiff dough or putty ; it is now ready for use. When it is cold it will be so stiff and hard that it cannot be used ; it is usually kept in this state, and when the workman requires any he cuts off as much as he may want and heats it by steam, which softens the mass so that it can be worked. ‘The composition is pressed into boxwood moulds, haying the desired patterns cut into the wood in a similar manner to die sinking in metal, differing in the greater degree of depth to which it is cut and the conse- quent higher relief in which the compo. orna- ment will stand. Sometimes moulds are made of brass, copper, pewter, or sulphur. In using the mould it is first oiled witha hog’s-hair tool to prevent the composition sticking to it; a piece of composition large enough for the mould is then put in a warm state over the whole length of the mould and pressed into the pattern with the hand and thumbs. A wet board is then placed upon and covering the composition, and the whole is put under a serew-press (or if the object is not very large a heavy roller and the weight of the body will answer the purpose), which forces the composition into the most minute portions of the mould, and thus we get a true or cor- rect impression. The wet board at the back of the composition will stick to the compo., and the ornament is pulled out of the mould by its aid, and it keeps the ornament straight and level. When the ecmpo. has set or be- come slightly hard, it is sliced off the board with a broad-bladed knife and pared down to the required thickness; in its then state the ornament is very flexible, and capable of being bent into any form or position required, without much danger of breaking or injuring it. (Itisthis quality which gives the com- position such an adyantage over papier- miché for framework.) If the compo. ornament is quite warm it may be fixed to its place by merely wetting the back with hot water, but if it has become set, glue must be used to fastenit with. When the ornament is fixed in its place it must be i es and gilt as before described. Much of the beauty of this work depends upon the excellence of the design, the sharpness of the cast, and the fineness of the composition ; for if thecompo is coarse and gritty, or is not properly mixed and worked into one uniform consistency and fineness of body, the impres- sion taken from the mould will be unequal in surface, devoid of sharpness, and will make altogether inferior work, which, in the end, costs much more to render it passable than twice the cost of doing it properly at first. So that in this case, as in most others, alittle extra labour at the beginning will often save much time and expense at the finish. Having treated of the various processes of gilding and the preparation and finishing of new work, we have now only to speak of the best methods of cleaning old work and re- gilding. The cleaning of old gilding is awork requiring very great care and a considerable amount of skill, in order not to injure the gold; this is more especially the case when the work is gilt on distemper size or matt and burnish. In this case all the finishing size on the matt parts has to be removed, which brings off the accumulated dirt and smoke with it, and so leaves the gold clean. ‘The burnished parts also require to be cleaned, and if great care is exercised this may be done without injuring the burnish ; but if the burnish is worn off in places, those parts will have to be touched with the burnish gold size and reburnished; the same with the matt gilding, whereyer it is injured it must be touched up as before. There are several methods of cleaning gold, or rather gilding. The gilder, when cleaning an old frame, takes a camel’s-hair brush dipped into lukewarm water having a small quantity of jelly size dissolved in it. With this he wets a portion of the frame to soften the finishing size, so that it will come away easily ; with this brush and a soft sponge he gradually clears off the dirt and size. ‘The great point after softening the dirt is to so work the sponge and brush as not to soak or rub through the gold to the size and whiting underneath, as would happenif the water and size were allowed to stand on it too long, or if it were rubbed too hard. A mug of clean water should be handy to rinse the sponge. After being cleaned and touched up, the whole should have a coat of finishing size as before described ; sometimes a little spirits of wine is added to the size and warm water for cleaning. Oil gilding may be washed with a soft sponge and brush and weak soap and water, or with the weak size and water. The oil gilding, although not requiring the extreme caution in handling the matt and burnish does, needs great care, or else the gold will be rubbed off. A method of cleaning oil gild- ing sometimes practised with success is to cover the whole surface with a thick coat- ing of fuller’s earth, which is allowed to remain on until dry, and is then washed off with asoft sponge and clean water ; a coat- ing of clay may also be used with success. Benzoin can be employed for cleaning both oil and matt and burnish gilding ; but must be used carefully with a camel’s-hair pencil. Tt will clean off the dirt without so disturbing the size as to injure it, and must be washed, or rather wiped, with a soft sponge dipped into water and used almost dry. Aquafortis may be used in the same way for the same purpose if diluted with water; the reason of this is that nitrous acids do not act upon the gold or oil size when the full strength is not used; but this or any other acid must only be used upon oil gilding. any other articles have to be regilt, the first process is to remove the dirt and the gold (if it is matt and burnish), and a portion of the gold size underneath, but without disturb- ing the whiting. If there are any indentations, holes, or bruises, these must be stopped up with the stiff whiting and size putty, and coated with two or three coats of new gold size as previously described ; then proceed togild as before. If the frame is gilt in oil, it must be first washed clean, repaired, then brushed over with one coat of weak size haying a slight touch of whiting mixed with it, previous to putting on the oil size, when it may be gilt in the usual manner. It will be seen that the great clement and indispensable condition of success in all these operations is carefulness, and without this quality no person should attempt to clean gilding ; but any person of average intelli- When picture-frames, or gence, using great care, and adhering strictly to the instructions here given, may venture to perform small works of this kind with success, ————__+——_—_——_. CRITICAL NOTES ON GREAT ITALIAN ARCHITECTS.—V. By J. B. Warne. BALTHAZAR PERUZZI, OF SIENA, BORN 1480, piep 1536. WE have already remarked how varied were the attainments of the great Italian architects of the revival of ancient art; and we have seen them equally capable in literature, sculpture, and engineering. We shall shortly notice those celebrated painters who also were versed in the art, and in the present instance meet with a profes- sional architect who was an accomplished painter and draughtsman—a painter and draughtsman not in our modern little manner, when applied to some of our architects who lay claim to be called artists because they can make cleverly-coloured sketches and dash out bold pen-and-ink drawings of buildings ; but a painter and draughtsman, an artist, whose knowledge of drawing in a grand scale, whose power of composition and effect were little inferior to those of the greatest masters. Such was Balthazar Peruzzi, born of a good Siennese family at Florence, in1480. When at an early age, he gave evidence of unusual talent for design, and applied himself, whilst. still a youth, with so much zeal to the study of painting that he was enabled to support his family, which by the death of his father was left in poor circumstances ; a very honour- able commencement to alife which was a long- continued study and practice of art, pursued in the most honourable, unselfish, and generous spirit, to his own serious discomfort in later years, and to the great discredit of those em- ployers who took advantage of his unworldly, unmercenary character. Since it is as an architect we have mainly to consider Peruzzi, we will first of all enume- rate his works in that art, and subsequently notice his productions as a painter. It was at Rome that Peruzzi commenced to study, or at least to practice architecture. All Italian artists flocked to Rome at that time to see, atleast, the greatest works of anti- quity, which caused so much enthusiasm for ancient art; and thither went Peruzzi with the painter Piero, of Volterra, and assisted him in his works for Pope Alexander VI. On Piero’s death he appears to have lost that appointment, or at least to have resigned it, and entered the workshop of Maturino, of Florence. who, together with his friend Polidoro da Caravaggio, executed numerous works in colour, chairo oscuro and graffito for the decoration of the Roman palaces, &e. 5 a practice then common, and not despised by the greatest artists, and of which several excellent examples are still to be seen in Rome. About this period Peruzzi appears to have been called away from Rome to exe- cute various compositions at Ostia and else- where ; but he returned to what was now really his home, and about the year 1518 designed the first architectural work of which we find any record, and a most beautiful work it is—viz., the palace built by Agostino Chigi, of Siena, the banker, now known as the Farnesina, which is a model of good taste and good proportion, and no less remark- able for its architecture than for the well- known paintings which adorn its walls and ceilings, amongst which those executed by Peruzzi himself hold a most distinguished. place.
 * It should be added to the honour of Chigi

that not only was he the friend of all the most accomplished artists of his time who visited Rome ; but he appears also in this instance to have afforded Peruzzi the means of studying andexamining the ancient remains, of which he made such good use. It was in this palace also that Peruzzi painted in chiaro oscuro those cor- nices and decorations in imitation of actual